Cool! Would you be so kind and explain how you run DOSBox without X? I recall some people asked for that and I'm curious what needs to be set.

I assume you are running on the framebuffer, so you should always be "fullscreen", at least sort of. There's a little problem: The framebuffer only has a small set of supported resolutions, VESAFB can't switch at all (although the latest linux kernels contain an improved VESAFB that can switch). Since DOSBox doesn't do arbitrary software scaling, you end up with big borders around the emulated video screen.

If that is indeed your problem (I hope it is), then you can try several things. Your goal is to get a physical resolution of 640x480 or 640x400, depending on what you want to play. Use the "fbset" utility to see if your framebuffer device can switch on-the-fly. If it can't, use boot options to set the correct mode. In both cases you will have to read docs to get details.

When you managed to get 640x400/480, use any DOSBox scaler, like "scaler=normal2x". Then your screen should be fully used.

Yeah, I also don't understand how you could be running in anything other than full screen if you're not running under X.

Thanks for answering.
I do have X installed but i don't think is needed unless perhaps for some dependecies.
I run it the same way i run any SDL app, like ScummVM or UAE, no special settings.I'm using DirectFB 0.9.22, i tryed fbset -v "640x480-75" ,here's what i got:

Opening frame buffer device `/dev/fb0'
Reading mode database from file `/etc/fb.modes'
Using video mode `640x480-75'
Setting video mode to `/dev/fb0'

But i didn't see any changes...same small DOSBox or ScummVM screen, i'll try at boot time and let you know.
By the way, it will only run as root, as user, SDL complains about not beeyng able to open the mouse.

Thanks for the help, i was a bit confused...
This is not quite running DOSbox without X, it's more like running it without starting X, that's good enough for me; and, of course, DirectFB doesn't have anything to do whith it.
Setting vga=311 in grub/menu.lst did the trick...But, i would like to keep my 1280x1024 resolution.
Do you know of any way to have only one tty running at 640x480?
Oh, and i stoped by your bar, Moe, 😁 nice place you have there!

With vesafb, you can only select one resolution. You will either have to build your own kernel or use a more recent prebuilt one which includes vesafb-ng, the revised version of the VESA framebuffer. Kernel versions starting with 2.6.12 or something like that have it. With these, fbset will work. If you build your own kernel, you could use a chipset-specific framebuffer driver (most likely rivafb or atyfb for nvidia and ati), those allow very detailed mode setting, including refresh rates and everything.

Ok, i'm using SUSE 10 and i didn't find any prebuilt kernels with vesafb-tng, i tryed patching 2.6.13-15.7, wich i was using, but it failed.I then got 2.6.16-AS24 source from ftp://ftp4.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/apt/SuSE/10 … S.suser-jengelh; it patched and built fine (apparently) and now fbset is working.
The drawback is a lot of other things are broken in the new kernel...
It was my first time building a kernel so i guess i have lots of reading and experimenting to do, eventualy i'll try a kernel of the day and one from kernel.org.
So tank you for your time and for your sugestions, they've put me on the right path.

"official" distro kernel sources should also contain official (default) settings, use them, and only change vesafb-settings afterwards. Don't forget to "make modules_install".

Thanks for replying again.
Well, when compiling this kernel (2.6.16-AS24) i used default settings, i thought i'd missed something but trying the precompiled rpm gave me the same issues.
Then i was finally able to patch my working kernel (2.6.13-15.7) with an older patch and now it's all good.
I still have one question, when starting DOSbox or any other SDL app and switching tty, all graphics are gone when switching back, even though the program is still running; i got this with both vesafb,
vesafb-tng, and with nvidiafb (wich i can load as a module) , is this "normal"?It would be nice to pause a game and browse the web for the solution, or view my mail on the other ttys...

Unfortunately, this is normal behaviour for the framebuffer. DOSBox skips redrawing (parts of) the screen if there was nothing modified, and the framebuffer doesn't save it's contents either. So no one restores the screen. You could try an older CVS checkout, I think it was around christmas when the partial screen updates were added. These earlier versions continuously redraw the full screen.

DOSBox really should have a key to force a full redraw. Maybe merged with the "rescan" key (Ctrl-F4?) in order to avoid using yet another key. Or it should do a full redraw once per second or something...

Tryed cvs from 2 and 3 months ago, got the same behavior.I guess i can live with that until a solution arrives.

`Moe` wrote:

DOSBox really should have a key to force a full redraw. Maybe merged with the "rescan" key (Ctrl-F4?) in order to avoid using yet another key. Or it should do a full redraw once per second or something...

That's a great idea, it would be great, is it to hard to implement?